1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a printing process comprising formation of a printing plate using an electrophotographic technique, conducting printing using the printing plate, and reusing the used printing plate.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Preparation of an original plate to be used for printing has been conducted by a process such as chemical processes including methods using photosensitive resins, which comprises printing of a photoimage on a photosensitive resin film applied onto a substrate, and removing the photosensitive resin of either image portions or non-image portions by using a difference of solubility of the resin between image and non-image portions, and methods for forming metallic images by using silver halides, and a process by means of an electrophotographic technique such as direct formation of a toner image on a photoconductive substrate of zinc oxide and indirect formation of a toner image on a substrate for transfer. As a printing process using a prepared printing plate, there may be mentioned methods such as a method which comprises selective adhesion of inks by using a difference of surface energy between image and non-image portions and, if necessary, conducting print on a transfer sheet through a blanket or a roller for offset printing, and another method which comprises electrostatic adhesion of a toner by using difference of electric resistance between image and non-image portions and transfer of the obtained toner image to another sheet.
However, used printing plates of these conventional methods are scrapped without reuse whereas in the present invention used printing, original plates are reclaimed.